Gay-Rights Group to Return to CPAC

Next month’s Conservative Political Action Conference will welcome back a guest that has been shunned in recent years: GOProud, a conservative gay-rights organization.

When the group last attended the event in 2011, several conservative groups, including the Heritage Foundation, protested its involvement and refused to join the conference. Sparks flew between GOProud and the American Conservative Union, which runs the conference, and the group was subsequently banned from co-sponsoring the event.

This year, the group will be a guest of the ACU, but it will not have a high profile—it is not a sponsor, nor will it have a booth. But that’s fine, said Ross Hemminger, one of the group’s executive directors. He and Matt Bechstein, former interns, took over the group’s leadership last July and decided to make repairing the relationship with the ACU a priority.

“We were very warmly received,” Mr. Hemminger said. But given that he and Mr. Bechstein are less than a year into the job, they have “a lot of irons in our fire,” he said. The group expects to ramp up its participation in 2015, with the goal of “showing people that gay people are just as much a part of the conservative movement as anyone else is.”

Mr. Hemminger said the group did not ask to co-sponsor the conference.

“We welcome GOProud’s attendance at this year’s CPAC conference. I believe their presence could help establish a productive relationship in the future,” ACU Executive Director Dan Schneider said in an email, adding that the two groups had a “constructive meeting” last week.

Mr. Schneider’s comments reflect a group seeking to appeal to a broader swath of Americans. “We’re determined to win the majority of American support,” said ACU Chairman Al Carden in an interview with the National Journal, which first reported on GOProud’s return.

Not everyone is pleased with the repaired relations. Jimmy LaSalvia, GOProud’s former executive director, said not co-sponsoring the conference is akin to being treated as a “three-fifths organization.”

“It’s treating them differently,” Mr. LaSalvia said. He added that GOProud members have been allowed to attend the conference in the past, and that this year’s attendance marks no change in ACU policy. Mr. LaSalvia attended CPAC last year to speak at a panel sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Meanwhile, GOProud co-founder Chris Barron said he resigned from the board Wednesday night to protest the group’s actions.

Mr. Hemminger emphasized that the group will be attending as the ACU’s guest. “This isn’t a situation where GOProud wasn’t allowed to co-sponsor,” he said. “We want to have a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship” with the ACU, Mr. Hemminger said.

CPAC, which will be held March 6-8, will also host a bevy of possible 2016 contenders, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.).

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